Other Sports

While We’re Waiting… Hillis the New King? and James Returns

It’s the day that has been circled on your sports calendar for months. Here are some nuggets to enjoy and discuss before the WFNY day gets in full swing. As usual, send links to tips@waitingfornextyear.com

The King is dead. Long live the NEW King. But who is that? I say Hillis- “Why he makes the list: Um, have you seen him play? He perfectly fits the mold of the ideal Cleveland underdog athlete: overshadowed in college, drafted in the seventh round, made the team that drafted him, was relegated to 35th on the depth chart, got a chance to start due to injuries, destroyed the competition, suffered a regime change, rode pine when the moron new coach didn’t think he could play, got traded, became a punishing and unstoppable force for a team that’s supposed to be built on smashmouth football but hadn’t had a capable player since the mid-1980s.” [ESPN Page 2]

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I grew up in Akron, and I really don’t get this disconnect thing people see between CLE and Akron- “LeBron is an Akronite — and there’s a huge difference between Akron and Cleveland,” Eric Vaughn says as he sips a beer in downtown Akron. “There’s a natural animosity between Cleveland and Akron, and I think everything that’s played out is an extension of that Cleveland-Akron axis.” [Reiter/FOX Sports]

Yet another plea to keep the tone respectable. Because we are all 7 year olds.- “I’m hoping that such public assault on our dignity will guide us tonight when we pack Quicken Loans Arena, along with countless numbers of sports bars, with Cavs fans seeking well-deserved retribution.” [Frantz/News-Herald]

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who the eff is eric vaughn and why do i care about his judgement on akron’s feelings about cleveland?

maybe this guy reiter for foxsports could find a holocaust denier in boardman to demonstrate that bernie kosar is nazi.

journalism in 2010. sad.

Chris

It’s odd that every Clevelander I know (self included) have always felt a kinship with the Akron area, and here it turns out Akron has always hated everything that ever had to do with Cleveland, and they just let it simmer (seriously did anyone ever know this “fact” before the whole LePippen fiasco?) this whole time.

I guess, to be honest with ourselves, we all owe what’s-his-name a big debt of gratitude for showing us this rift so we can now attempt to heal it.

/sarcasm off

Peyton Hillis can definitely be the new King of Cleveland, if he wants it. I would cast my vote, if kings were elected.

MattyFos

I’m from Canton, but I refer to the Tribe, Cavs and Browns as my hometown teams.. I guess I have to start boycotting Akron!

JK

When is the media, along with probably most of the world, going to stop pretending they don’t wanna see anything happen tonight? I would bet that’s why 80% of the non Cav/Heat fans will be watching. It’s like “Oh, you gotta be respectful, but if not… that’s cool too. Cuz we’ll be watching.”

Shamrock

Nothing will happen people will boo and the rest but big deal. This is just another media hyped event. I’ll be glad when it’s over because quite frankly I’m tired of hearing about tonight’s game everywhere. And I dont watch local news or read newspapers.

Dave

The only problem with making Hillis the new king is that he may still have a competitor in Cribbs. Don’t get me wrong, I like his heart, but I also like Josh’s versatility.

And remember, tonight, whatever you were planning on doing about Miami #6, let’s give Z a warm welcome home, ok?

C-Bus Kevin

@ Chris…you’re right. Kings aren’t elected. They’re self-appointed.

ZING!!!

mendy

haha, my favorite line in that espn article: “So … at least he gets to wear the same jerseys as his best friends. That’s fun.”

And after holding up a young jock as our hero and being stunned when he turned out to be, well, a young jock, we are ready to annoint a new 24 year old jock as king because … he has muscles up to his ears and runs over people and says “aw shucks” and points to the sky after scoring?

Please, peeps, there are so many out there really deserving of your hero worship. This isn’t even fair to the kid. Just enjoy the athletics.

JK

@Mattyfos – I’ve never lived in Cleveland (Columbus about 99% of my life) and I refer to Cle as my hometown teams.

BuckeyeDawg

@10 – I read that last night, and that is the best article I have ever read on an ESPN outlet. I didn’t know they were capable of anything beyond a 30 second sound byte or 2 paragraph opinion column.

Fern

Fan support for Travis Hafner???

Jrples

Who says Akron hates Cleveland?! I’m an Akronite and I love everything about Cleveland!

St. McDuck

Give me Hillis over Mrs. Wade any day. Heck, give me the imperfect but better balanced NFL over the NBA any day. That said, go Cavs.

JM

When did Akron start hating Cleveland? I’ve been there plenty of times and I had no problems with anyone.

cle

hillis is the king… and hes not gonna be able to inflict this kind of punishment for very long either.